


Friendly or Flirty?

by 74days



Series: Meet-Cute AU's [6]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, First Meetings, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-29
Updated: 2014-10-29
Packaged: 2018-02-23 04:21:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2533973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/74days/pseuds/74days
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky isn't sure if the guy sending him Snapchats is flirting with him or just really likes taking shirtless photos. Either way, he's enjoying them!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friendly or Flirty?

Bucky’s new phone came with very little pre-installed apps, which Clint decided just wasn’t good enough. He stole the phone and by the time Bucky got it back, there were pages of the damn things.

“Seriously?” He said, scrolling through the list. “Words with Friends? I don’t have enough friends for this!”

“Tash loves it.” Clint shrugged. “I’m saving you the hardship of her forcing you to play later, trust me. Just be aware though – she’s ruthless. I added you to snapchat, and Candycrush – I don’t care if you don’t play it, I need you to send me lives, okay?”

* * *

 

Bucky would never admit it, but he really, really liked the Angry Bird thing – he was pretty good at it – and he kinda liked the snapchat because Clint used his to tell stupid stories that made him laugh and Tash used hers to take selfie pictures of her holding her cat and Bucky won’t ever admit that he thinks that’s kinda adorable, mostly because Tashs’ cat looks like a ball of pure rage whenever picked up.

Other people add him – he’s not sure why, but he ends up with a few different ‘friends of friends’ on his list, so he gets selfies and pictures from people he doesn’t recognise at all. The guy who pops up in a background shot Clint takes one time is on his list under ‘Releasethefalcon’ and that kinda makes sense because Clint’s name is ‘Thehawkguy’ so Bucky assumes they’re friends. His name is ‘Wintersarge’ because Clint’s a creative guy except when it comes to naming things, and Tash is ‘Spiderbite’ which she picked herself and Bucky’s not stupid enough to tease her about that.

But then he’s got this guy – ‘Americap’ – who shows up one day on his list and Bucky doesn’t think twice about adding him, and now he’s just confused. Americap isn’t even in the US, from the snaps he takes, he looks like he’s on some kind of army base, probably Afghanistan going on the sand and sun that bleaches out his pictures. Bucky had thought at first it was an old Army buddy, adding him, but the first selfie he got debunked that – he’d have remembered Americap. Those shoulders would be hard to forget.

He wasn’t sure who the guy was, but hell, he was an Army boy like Bucky, and he sent one or two snaps a week, mostly of spiders (Bucky’s never going to miss those giant fuckers, not ever) and blocking him seemed a little harsh. So Bucky stuck with taking pictures of Brooklyn and his coffee cups (which makes Tash laugh at him and Clint calls him a hipster for the black and white shots) but screw em, because he always gets replays and a couple of times Americap had taken a screenshot of them – so they couldn’t have been so bad.

* * *

 

He didn’t think about it much anymore, just snapped things he saw and liked, saving them before sending to everyone on his list. He got a few new adds, some people he knew (Onthehill was a friend of Natasha, she also had a cat, although mostly her snaps were of her pulling ridiculous faces) and some people he didn’t (Peppapot never took a selfie, so he didn’t know what she looked like, but her snaps were mostly of other cities and different local foods) and sometimes they’d even send him little messages on the chat system – Peppapot mostly, she liked his panoramic views of the skyline, often asking him to resend.

He didn’t think much about it, until one day he sent out a picture of himself on the top of the Empire State building. His hair was back in a bun, but the wind was so strong up there that some stands had gotten loose and were waving about. He’d never taken a selfie before, but fuck it, the view was great and he’d just gotten into the habit of posting ever picture he took.

* * *

 

Friday nights used to be clubs and booze and puking-up in alleys on the way home when they’d been younger, but ever since Bucky and Clint got discharged, they’d been totally turned off the idea. Bucky still had issues with people looking at him weird and Clint didn’t cope well in crowds, so now they spent their Friday nights between apartments – this week it was Clint’s turn, and his kid sister (not so much a kid any more, Bucky noticed, then hated himself for noticing considering he’d first met her when she’d been starting high school) had decided to join them.

“Saw your selfie,” Kate grinned, ‘Hawkeye’ on his snapchat, because it pissed of her brother who had wanted that name. “Don’t think I’ve seen you in a picture since before you got home.” Her eyes didn’t linger on his arm – the space where his arm **_should_** be – when she smiled. “Looking good for an old guy.”

“Screw you, Kate.” He grumbled. “I’m younger than Clint.”

“So are dinosaurs.” She shot back, about to kick her feet on the table and stopping in just enough time before knocking over the board game Clint was setting up. He didn’t reply to her comment which meant that he’d forgotten to put his hearing aids back in or he was trying to be the bigger man and not rag on his sister.

The board game for the evening was called ‘Ticket to Ride’ and Bucky was pleased because he’d bought it for Clint’s birthday and he’d been desperate to play it. Natasha was at the door paying the pizza guy (one for each of them because they could never agree on what toppings to get) and Bucky had brought the beers. “Didn’t really think about it.” He said, trying not to panic. Maybe he should have stuck with the cityscapes.

“I like the new look.” Kate said, glancing at her brother. “The hair suits you.” When she’d been a teenager, Clint had teased her mercilessly for the crush she had on Bucky. She’d grown out of it, of course, but Clint still enjoyed ribbing her over the whole thing. He definitely didn’t have his hearing aids in if he was letting **_that_** slide.

“Pizza’s here!” Natasha said, carrying the boxes in one hand. Her other hand was holding Clint’s hearing aids. “What’s the point in having these if you keep taking them out?” She said, kicking him (probably not too gently) as she walked past.

“Hate em.” Clint said, voice weird, a little distorted – it only happened when he wasn’t wearing his aids, and no one ever mentioned it. He put them in and flexed his jaw. “Feels weird.”

“Try not standing next to big explosions next time.” Bucky smirked at him, grabbing the first box from Natasha and popping the lid with his thumb.

“Try not to stop an explosion with your fucking body next time.” Clint shot back, and swiped the box out of his hand. “Aww pizza!”

* * *

 

The beers were cold and the pizza was lukewarm, but the night was a good one, and Bucky snapped them all as they played, saving them to his story and his phones memory. Natasha won the game (which Clint declared was probably the best board game they’d played, ever) and Bucky lost spectacularly.

* * *

 

The next day he had a snap from Americap, a poker game played in a tent, a couple of other guys in the shot, grinning at the camera. “No pizza for us!” the caption said, and Bucky found himself grinning. They were obviously in different units, which was fairly common on bases where the Army, Navy and Flyboys needed to share space. He could see that one of the guys was actually a Colonel, although he obviously wasn’t pulling rank sitting beside the unmistakable face of Tony Stark. Bucky had never met the guy, but he (and most of America) knew him pretty well – rich and famous, he supplied the US military with state of the art weapons. Another air force guy, grinning at the camera while Stark threw up his trademark ‘peace’ sign beside him. There was another guy out of the shot, but Bucky couldn’t make him out. Americap taking the picture, so Bucky didn’t see him at all.

* * *

 

The very next day, he got snap from Clints buddy ‘Releasethefalcon’ – a selfie with Americap, both guys had their arms thrown over each other’s shoulders, although Falcon obviously was struggling to get his arm over Americaps broad shoulders. “Bro’s before other Bro’s” The caption said, and a few moments after he read that, Clint had sent one out too.

He had his arms around Tashs waist and both of them looked like they’d just crawled out of bed. “Chicks before Dicks” his caption read and Bucky actually laughed at that.

So that kinda of explained that.

Falcon was buddies with Clint and Americap was friends with Falcon – it didn’t quite explain why Americap had added him to snapchat, but he figured it was one of those ‘degrees of separation’ things that Clint loved to talk about.

* * *

 

Over the next couple of weeks he sent more and received more snaps than ever before. Hardly a day went by without Clint and Falcon bitching at each other over captions – fucking **_Tony Stark_** added him (Tony fucking **_Stark_**!) and the whole thing got a little incestuous after that. It seemed everyone managed to know everyone, without actually knowing anyone at all – Clint had never met Americap but he was pretty sure he was called Steve, and he was a good friend of Sam (Falcon) Natasha knew Peppa (Pepper Potts, dating Tony fucking Stark) and no one knew who the fuck Thor was, but Bucky thought he might be friends with Americap as they were both Army boys (Thor seemed to be Swedish Spec Ops) – Thor was dating JaneFoster (Her actual name, which was pretty rare) who worked with BruceyB, who turned out to work for Tony Stark and…

Well, it all got a bit confusing.

At least the bickering and teasing going back and forth was highly amusing.

* * *

 

“Homesick” The caption said, a black and white photo of what Afghanistan was famous for. Sand and more fucking sand. Americap sent pretty irregular pictures, but whenever he did they were always some variant of ‘missing home’ and Bucky understood that well enough. Before he’d been discharged (medals! Glory! Missing body parts!) he’d missed home so bad it was like a constant ache in his bones. He didn’t miss the sand, or the spiders.

Taking a quick selfie of himself standing in front of the Starbucks he liked best (not so many people, the barista didn’t try to make conversation) he shot it back – for the first time only to Americap rather than everyone on his friends list. “I know the feeling” He typed. He drew a little sad face on the top, before removing it and just sending.

* * *

 

A picture of Steve smiling with a little girl, both grinning into the camera. “Salma says hello” made him smile, remembering how great the kids he’d met out there had been. He had taken a lot of pictures with kids, so didn’t think twice before taking a picture of himself grinning at the camera “Hello from New York Salma!”

* * *

 

“You made her day” A picture of a little girl laughing and covering her face made him grin like an idiot, and replay so he could show Tash, who nudged him when she felt left out. Clint and Tash had been waiting inside for him to arrive, his coffee order already placed.

“He’s cute.” Natasha grinned, and Clint mock glared.

“You should only have eyes for me.” He reminded her, which made her snort inelegantly and roll her eyes in his direction.

“What’s his name?” She said, nodding back at the phone that he pocketed so he could pick up his coffee. ‘Stucky’ the writing said, and he glared at the lettering.

“Ah, Americap?” He shrugged, taking a sip. “I think he knows Sam?”

“Big guy, blond?” Clint said, handing Natasha her paper cup. “Hip to waist ratio of a pizza slice?” When Bucky nodded, Clint smiled. “Yeah, Captain Steve G Rogers, he’s like, Sam’s best bro for life or whatever. You remember Sam, right?”

“Nah.” Bucky shrugged. “Was he over here?”

“Nah, dude, you totally have. He was part of the pararescue that got us out.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement of fact. Bucky didn’t remember much about the explosion, before or after – they said the trauma just blocked things from his memory, and Clint knew that. He sometimes forgot that Bucky was a lot closer to the IED than he was. “Anyway, Sam like, thinks Steve is the greatest thing on the earth. I’d say he was totally into him but he doesn’t swing that way.”

“Steve?”

“Sam. Steve **_totally_** plays for your team.”

“Ah.”

Good to know, at least.

* * *

 

“New York got festive” Bucky commented on his picture of the Christmas decorations to his friends. The lights and decorations had been set up, and everything looked a bit weird in the daylight. He didn’t think much of it when he got a snap from Tony Stark.

“Come 2 the tower! CU SOON!” The picture was of a robot in a party hat. On closer inspection, it was a dunce cap.

* * *

 

Stark Tower was one of the many focal points in New York. Modern and sleek it dominated the surrounding buildings, and Bucky had never been inside the glass doors. He never had any reason to – it was open to the public (there was a cafe where you could get an overpriced coffee and a small store where you could buy Stark branded goods, like t-shirts or tote bags. Neither had interested Bucky before.

When he walked over to the huge glass and steal desk where a polite but disinterested receptionist sat, he was pretty sure showing up was a bad idea. Tony Stark was well known for being a bit... weird. Flighty.

There was a good chance that he’d already forgotten that he’d invited Bucky. There was a good chance Bucky was being an idiot even showing up.

“Excuse me?” He said, smiling his best smile at the girl. She was pretty – he wondered if she’d been a Starkette once. “Um, Tony Stark told me to come?”

“Name?”

“Bucky Barnes.” He said, shifting from one foot to the other. Stupid idea to show up expecting Tony Stark to have-

“Of course, Sir, if you just go through to elevators, they will tak you to see Mr Stark. Have a nice day.”

* * *

 

“So then I said, I could do better.”

Tony Stark was everything and nothing Bucky expected. He talked a million words a minute, seemed to have a complete lack of personal boundaries and social politeness, but he wasn’t exactly rude – he’d been talking when Bucky arrived (to a robot) and switched almost instantly to talking to Bucky (at Bucky) without so much as a breath between.

“So then Cap was all, yeah? Prove it.” He waved a hand over in the general direction of Bucky. “And so that’s why I need you, yeah?”

“You’ve lost me.” Bucky admitted. He’d been lost almost as soon as the elevator dropped him off at the correct floor with a ‘Mr Stark is waiting, Sergeant’ in a crisp English accent.

“Huh? Oh, right.” He put the screw driver down and wiped a hand over his white undershirt. “I’m gonna make high-tech prosthetics.” He said. “For science – and I need a guy who needs one.” He looked Bucky up and down. “And Pepper knows you, and Steve knows you, so... you’re the guy I want.”

* * *

 

Bucky sent a snap of him sitting on a chair that resembled a dentists, stripped of his shirt and Tony in the background holding what looked like a roundsaw. “Send help he’s mad” he captioned and sent it to his friends.

* * *

 

It was late when he got home, dropped off by a guy called ‘Happy’ in a limo. Stark had scanned everything, taken blood, made him run on treadmills and yoga poses. He checked his phone inbetween the tests Stark ran, the man seemed to zone out when he was working, although he kept up a steady flow of conversation – all of it was one sided.

“Don’t worry he’s mostly harmless” Peppapots snapped him, followed by another one of her frowning face “MOSTLY”.

Americap sent one a few hours later. “Too hot!” He was sitting in the bright sunlight, the picture washed out with the strong light, and his shirt was off. Bucky wasn’t sure if he was calling Bucky hot (he had been shirtless) or if he was just saying it was hot in the sun. Bucky wasn’t sure what to reply to that.

“Looks it” He typed using a picture of the robot in the dunce cap.

* * *

 

“I miss good coffee” Americap sent – holding a plastic cup of the crap they served on base. He was frowning at it. Bucky grinned.

He was back at Stark Tower, although he was pretty sure Tony didn’t need to see him. He got the feeling he just liked an audience. He’d been there most days as Tony worked on the new ‘arm’ he was building. Because he wasn’t currently working, he had a lot of time to kill, so he didn’t mind sitting around and listen to Tony talk about things that were far too complicated for him to understand.

“I miss good company.” He sent back, a picture of Tony mid rant. Today his go-to topic of conversation was Justin Hammer. The day before it had been the fact that some reporter had said he was the ‘merchant of death’ and the day before that he was complain that doctor Banner had left to go to some yoga retreat for the week.

* * *

 

The picture of Americap in just his combat pants had Bucky seriously wondering. Were they flirting? Was this Steve guy just sending these pictures to **_everyone_**?

Bucky couldn’t send a thumbs up picture. Kinda hard to hold the phone and do anything when you only had the one hand. He’d sent him a winking face instead. He hoped they were flirting.

* * *

 

Bucky’s new arm – the very best Stark Tech had to offer – was a sleek metal, made of interlocking plates.

It wasn’t like the other prosthetics they’d tried to give him when he’d woken up with a fucking stump – hard plastic and immobile – this fucker moved. Moved like a real arm.

Stark told him it had something to do with nerve endings and nodes and to be honest, Bucky wasn’t paying much attention.

He had an arm.

A new arm.

That he could move. Pick things up with. Touch things.

He stood in the bathroom of Stark’s workshop and took half a dozen photo’s of it, showing off the way it attached to his shoulder and bicep – it didn’t hurt, but it looked like it was fused to his flesh.

“I don’t need to see your mannips” Clint shot him back, looking disgusted.

“Stark can rebuild you!” Kate sent.

“Looking good soldier” Americap’s caption said, his picture giving the thumbs up.

* * *

 

“Sam and Steve are gonna get some leave for New Year.” Clint was telling him as Natasha and Pepper set up a new board game. Bucky had invited Pepper and Tony Stark too – he was currently despairing over Kates iphone (mostly because it wasn’t the new Stark phone that had launched) and Bucky nodded.

Steve (Americap) had already sent out a snapchat. He’d been grinning. Bucky thought maybe that they were flirting. **_Lots_** of shirtless pics were going back and forth – Bucky mostly because he was in love with his arm – and Steve because... well... Bucky had no idea why Steve was always shirtless, but he wasn’t going to complain. “Yeah, Steve mentioned it.”

“I bet he did.” Pepper grinned, before taking a swig of the imported beer that Tony had brought with him.

“Who did?” Stark asked, walking over, his arm thrown around Kate’s shoulder.

“Steve told Bucky he was coming home for leave.” Pepper filled him in.

“I **_bet_** he did.” Stark laughed. So... they **_were_** flirting, right?

* * *

 

Stark was holding a New Years Party, and he’d invited Bucky, Clint, Natasha and Kate – and what looked like half of the population of New York. Pepper had taken them through to what Bucky thought was the VIP section, a free bar and a good DJ playing – but that wasn’t what was holding Bucky’s attention.

Steve was there.

“Hey.” He said, looking blond, glorious and a little nervous. “I, um, I don’t think we’ve actually ever been introduced.” He held out his hand, and grinned. “I’m Steve.”

“Bucky.”

* * *

 

“Ten!” The crowd shouted along with the DJ.

“So I know this is kinda uh-”

“Nine!”

“Maybe a bit out of the blue, but-”

“Eight!”

“I was wondering if you’d like to-”

“Seven!”

“Grab a coffee sometime?”

“Six!”

The sound of the crowd was impossible to ignore, but so was the breath of Steve, standing so close to Bucky that he could feel the warm breath of his words on his skin.

“Five!”

He smiled at Steve and nodded. “That sounds really-”

“Four!”

“Good.”

“Three!”

“Yeah?” Steve looked thrilled, his smile was brighter than the lights that were flashing in time with the chanting crowd.

“Two!”

Bucky grinned back, nodding. Sure, fuck it, his New Years resolution should be making Steve Rogers smile like that all the damn time.

“One!”

“Happy New Year, Steve.” He grinned, and kissed the blond man.

* * *

 

“Happy New Year, Buck.” Steve said, sitting on the couch beside Bucky. They’d skipped out on Starks party – Steve’s broken leg made moving about pretty hard. Trust Steve to manage 5 tours without getting a single hair on his head out of place, and break his damn leg the same week he came home for good. Saving a kitten from a fucking tree.

“Happy New Year, Steve.” He grinned, and kissed his boyfriend gently as bright explosions burst over the New York skyline.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Not really sure how I feel about this one!  
> I think it got a little... messy.  
> Next one should be better!


End file.
